The United States earned more points than any other country in 2017 but it was not enough to surpass Japan for the number one ranking.

For the third year in a row Japan is the number one ranked country in baseball. They earned the second most points in baseball last year and now lead the United States by 244 points. Cuba remains number five place, 355 points ahead of México.

Nicaragua will host the Under 23 WBSC championship in 2018, playing the games at the newly constructed 15,000 seat Dennis Martinez stadium at a date yet to be determined. Despite all the points awarded for this event the No 2 United States and No 5 Cuba will not be playing in the tournament. The United States did not play in the qualifying round, while Cuba did not qualify. Below are the teams who have qualified for the games:

The United States has finished higher than Japan in most of the tournaments the two play in. The main reason Japan is rated higher is they have played in more tournament, two November World Cup age tournaments that the United States chose not to participate in. The voting system tends to favor quantity of tournaments played rather than quality.

Below are the top ten countries in baseball. You can see the complete list at WBSC.org.

The International Olympic Committee will make a final decision in August as to which sports will be added for the 2020 Games, if any. The decision is for the sports’ inclusion in the 2020 Olympics only and not for Olympics beyond that.

World Baseball Classic, Inc. (WBCI) today announced the venues and pools for the qualifying round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the fourth installment of the baseball tournament featuring many of the world's greatest players. The winners of each qualifier will advance to compete in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. The four venues that have been selected to host a Qualifier are: